Halsey (2-2, 3.88)
Clemens (3-1, 1.11)
Now, you might have thought last night was a pitching mismatch, But today? Career K's: 55 vs. 4377; career wins: 3 vs. 331. There hasn't been such a yawning chasm in W's for almost forty years: on Sept. 27, 1965, Warren Spahn made the last start of his 363-win career, facing Tracy Stallard and his 29 victories. That's the gulf in experience Halsey is facing.
Oh, and Clemens is merely sporting the lowest ERA in the majors, at 1.11. He's gone 7 or more innings every single start, only allowed more than one run twice in eight appearances (when he gave up two and three), and is keeping opposing hitters to a .179 average.
I suppose the only comforting thing is he has cooled off. Relatively. After Clemens' first four games, he had an ERA of 0.32, having given up one run in 28 innings. And we showed last night that we can still wield the bat on occasion, even if the pitching matchup is not supposed to be in our favour.
Maybe patience would be the trick: he is averaging 106 pitches/start so far, so perhaps we can wait for his arm to fall off. Okay, I admit it: I got nuthin' here, as far as a suggested gameplan goes, beyond a sniper with a tranquilizer gun in the stands.
If we lose this one, I think it'll be one of those cases where we just have to throw up our hands and acknowledge we met a master. But if we win, even if it's against the Astros bullpen, boy, would that be a boost to our morale or what?